School success recipe may include dash of daydreaming

Opinion: Traditionally structured schools could be rowing against a virtual tide

Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.

As a lifelong constructive daydreamer I wonder now why my own high school results were not better than they were.

Researchers from Britain’s University of Stirling observed more than 230 children, aged from five to early adulthood, and found that apparent daydreamers did better than their full attention classmates in tests and problem-solving tasks.

If that were the case I should have finished with a straight A graduation. As it was, I wish my own high school teachers had seen this study. Those wood rulers across the knuckles awakened me more than once.

While it seems unlikely that children do better at school if they stare out of the window instead of focusing constantly on the teacher, University of Stirling researchers claim that paying attention sometimes distracts children because their brains are too busy trying to interpret visual cues from the teacher.

Their findings held across a range of different tasks, the researchers said; “these results are important because they show that children avert their gaze when they are trying to carry out a task which is difficult or with which they are not yet familiar.”

This makes some sense because as adults who work at a desk we sometimes find that getting up and walking around a bit clears the mind and refreshes perspective on the problem at hand.

Traditionally structured high schools which expect teenagers, boys in particular, to sit still and watch the front could be rowing against a virtual tide of adolescent imagination.

Another influential study, this one a national initiative by the Canadian Education Association, What Did You Do in School Today? is designed to capture, assess and inspire new ideas for enhancing the learning experiences of adolescents in schools.

Since it was launched in 2007, more than 63,000 students have shared their experiences of learning and engagement with CEA through an online survey.

Perhaps the CEA’s most striking finding is that levels of intellectual engagement fall quite dramatically as the grades progress. The decline begins in Grade 5 where kids are apparently engaged about 82 per cent of the time to Grade 12 when thinking about what the class is about apparently happens only about 45 per cent of the time.

Being intellectually engaged means to be learning to use one’s mind well and includes risk-taking, experimentation, independence and confidence as a learner. It is also about developing the competencies students need to be successful in learning and in life skills like problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and innovation,

Improving low levels of intellectual engagement, the study suggests, may be a more challenging process in secondary schools because of increasing subject specialization, fixed course timetables and the “we’ve always done it this way” challenges of generating school-wide change in larger schools.

The CEA’s analysis of responses in its study concludes there are at least three ways kids engage with school which are both indicators and predictors of student success. First up for most kids is social engagement, meaning participation in school life — in sports and clubs — along with positive friendships.

Then there is institutional engagement, meaning attendance with at least a nod to homework, indicating the value students place on the outcomes of school. Kids do better who believe that this could eventually lead to something good in adult life.

Then there is actual intellectual engagement. This is more about serious emotional and cognitive investment in learning — a mixture of interest and motivation, committed effort, effective learning time, relevance and instructional challenge.

High expectations for success and positive teacher/student relations combine to produce gains in levels of intellectual engagement. Kids learn best from teachers they like or at least respect.

And let’s not forget a little constructive daydreaming.

Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools. He can be reached atgfjohnson4@shaw.ca

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